Lee Sang-hoon (baseball)

Lee Sang-hoon, born on March 11, 1971 and nicknamed Samson for his long hair, is a retired South Korean left-handed pitcher who played professional baseball in the KBO League, Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball. After graduating from Korea University in 1993 he joined the LG Twins, starting as a starting pitcher; his best seasons were 1994 and 1995, when he won 18 and 20 games. His 1995 record of 20 wins and 5 losses, with a 2.01 earned run average, 12 complete games and 142 strikeouts, earned him a KBO League Golden Glove Award. He became a closer after that season. Posted in 1998, he was the first player whose Korean team rejected the bid for the right to negotiate with him, yet he reached the majors in 2000 and pitched nine games for the Boston Red Sox with a 3.09 earned run average over 11.2 innings. In 2003 he was the highest-paid player in the KBO after signing a 600-million-won contract in a second stint with the LG Twins. Since retiring he has coached in the KBO Futures League and the KBO.